Playing largely for Somerset and Warwickshire, he took over 1,600 wickets as a medium-pace bowler, though he began his career as a top-order batsman, and was capable enough with the bat to score seven hundreds including a double-century.
Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, stated, "Cartwright was an exceptional bowler whose talents could not find a niche in the England side, much to the discredit of the selectors.
[1] He became a coach in later life at Millfield School, and later for Wales, as well as a manager at Glamorgan, with whom he had concluded his player career in 1977.
He made his first-class debut in Warwickshire's last county championship match of the 1952 season, against Nottinghamshire, scoring 82 and 22 not out.
In 1955, he played for the Army against the Navy at Lord's, and for the Combined Services against Lancashire, scoring three half-centuries in the two matches.
[3] He toured in the winter of 1964/65, but broke a metatarsal bone and was unable to play until the Fourth Test against South Africa at Johannesburg.
Basil D'Oliveira was selected to take his place, and the resulting controversy led to South Africa's exclusion from Test cricket for twenty two years.
He became coach at Somerset, where he played with a young Ian Botham, helping him to develop his swing bowling.
[citation needed] Cartwright suffered a heart attack in March 2007, and died a month later.
[citation needed] A biography, Tom Cartwright: The Flame Still Burns, by Stephen Chalke was published in April 2007.